The 14th meeting of the ITER Science and Technology Advisory Committee (STAC) took place at the ITER Headquarters, from 14-16 May. The STAC advises the ITER Council on two areas: the monitoring of ongoing project activity and the assessment of new proposals which imply a change in the ITER Baseline. The work at every meeting is based on the "STAC charges" adopted by the ITER Council. It assesses input from the ITER Organization that replies to recommendations previously made by the STAC and answers questions implied in the STAC charges.

One of the first agenda items was to review the project schedule from a technical point of view. STAC analyzed the technical causes of delays, including aspects which are midway between the technical and the managerial world such as configuration control, quality control, process control, etc. STAC 14 continued to express its concern about delays in the project. They considered a number of systems to be "critical or supercritical," which means that they drive the First Plasma schedule. STAC 14 stated that the ‘buildings, vacuum vessel, poloidal field coils and even the toroidal field coils could come into this category if delays are not stemmed." They said, " In addition, the "microschedule" reflected in the milestone achievement index and similar management parameters also indicates delays." The STAC did, however, acknowledge organizational efforts and the implementation of recovery plans in order to mitigate the delays.

In addition to technical analysis of the schedule, STAC also looked at deferrals, i.e., procurements which are proposed to be delayed in order to free resources for other items that are needed in earlier phases of the project. STAC stated that they were "worried about the deferred implementation of some systems, in particular diagnostics, and we have requested the ITER Organization to make every possible effort to implement those systems in time in order to avoid delays to the deuterium-tritium campaign derived from a slow implementation of the research plan."

This STAC meeting had the responsibility to make a clear recommendation on an important technical decision: whether or not to include in-vessel coils for ELM control in the Baseline. After they evaluated the specific problems that a lack of ELM control could cause, in particular when operating with a tungsten divertor, their unanimous recommendation was to include the coils in the ITER Baseline. They concluded that the "potential benefits of the use of the coils in achieving ITER's mission outweigh the risks, which were found to be very modest taking into account the solid design of the coils and the fact that they will be thoroughly tested during the non-nuclear phase." STAC expects to make a recommendation next October for another key technical decision: the material for the first ITER divertor (tungsten or carbon).

China Ships Conductor to ITER

According to the Procurement Arrangement signed between the Chinese Domestic Agency and the ITER Organization, China will fabricate 64 conductors for ITER's poloidal field coils, including four dummy conductors for cabling and coil manufacturing process qualification. On Thursday 25 April, the Institute of Plasma Physics (ASIPP) in Hefei, China loaded 737 metres of dummy conductor for ITER's Poloidal Field Coil number five (PF5)—this represents the first delivery from China to the ITER construction site in France. The shipment arrived June 3.

"This is the very first batch of ITER items to be shipped from China to the ITER site in Cadarache," said Luo Delong, Deputy Director-General of ITER China. Before, conductors for the toroidal field coils had been shipped to Japan and Europe. "This milestone is a further step for the ITER project. According to our schedule, we will now start massive production of conductors this year. Our goal is that all procurement items from China be supplied consistent with the ITER schedule and with ITER quality requirements."

Russia Ships ITER Superconductor to Italy

The Russian Domestic Agency is responsible for 20 percent of toroidal field conductor procurement and 14 percent of poloidal field conductor procurement. On 25 June, the second batch of toroidal field conductor unit lengths started on their way from the premises of the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow to the city of La Spezia, Italy, where the winding of ten toroidal field coils will take place.

Demonstrating the attachment of Russian industry to fulfill its contractual obligations on time, two 415-metre production lengths of niobium-tin (Nb3Sn) conductor for toroidal field side double-pancakes were loaded onto trucks at the Institute. This latest shipment follows the delivery of four conductor unit lengths to Europe in October 2012, including a copper dummy and a 100-metre qualification length.

Seven similar units lengths have passed all of the tests stipulated in the Procurement Arrangement and meet ITER Organization requirements; they will, in turn, be shipped as well.

U.S. Delivers Vacuum Leak Detection Components

In constructing ITER, one of the key challenges is to ensure a leak-free machine. The US Domestic Agency has recently completed the bulk of delivery for the test equipment required to confirm the vacuum leak-tightness of components as they arrive on site and during the construction of the machine. The components include helium spray guns and highly sensitive mass spectrometer-based detectors.

"This procurement is the very first US ITER procurement to be delivered to the ITER site, hence it should be celebrated as a real success," said Mike Hechler, the responsible officer within the US vacuum team.

For further information on ITER progress, visit http://www.iter.org